Thread: What do the blind see?

they see black im 99% sure cos there are peoble who have gone blind but not born blind. so they know what they see, and if it was something weird they would have said so

You don't see nothing.
If you were to talk to a totally blind person, they wouldn't understand what you mean by seeing. It's not something they can understand. So it's an unanswerable question.

What is it like for you to see ultraviolet light? What is it like for you to see clear air?

You see nothing if you are born blind. How can you see black if you've never seen in the first place? You haven't experienced black, or any other colour to know what they are.

People who go blind during the course of their life, so they know what it is to see. They end up seeing black because that's what a room without light looks like.

what i want to know is, what does a person dream of if they were born blind, do they see? or just hear. and what about a deaf blind person.

Originally Posted by slash112

what i want to know is, what does a person dream of if they were born blind, do they see? or just hear. and what about a deaf blind person.

I'd guess it would be a combination of senses, minus hearing. Their brains wouldn't have any sense of sight to play with, and so it just wouldn't be included.

Sounds weird to us, but to a blind person it is probably as normal as sight is to us.

Originally Posted by Kushna Mufeed

You see nothing if you are born blind. How can you see black if you've never seen in the first place? You haven't experienced black, or any other colour to know what they are.

im pretty sure you still see black. you just dont know what to call it.
i hate how everyone tries to be super duper philosophical genius on the interwebs.

It's a very good question.

A good although possibly incorrect analogy would be that it is the same experience as our experience of magnetic fields.

I suppose it would also depend on the extent that our visual cortex is genetically developed as opposed to development through experience.

Think about this: a pattern of colour will cause a pattern of neural activity in the brain.

If you inserted electrodes into somebody who had never seen but still had a developed visual cortex and then emulated this pattern of activity, it is hard to argue that they would not see the pattern.

Even weirder thought: neural networks are essentially just mathematical networks. The information, or 'essential quality' about these neural networks is very simple and very precise.

Here is complete and exhaustive description of a network using a notation I've just made up:

5
12,14,15,23,45

The top number is the number of nodes and the bottom pairs of numbers are the arcs that exist between the nodes.

Here's my point; in a universe where there is not even such a thing as colour, if you emulated the correct network, a being in that universe would experience colour.

Surely?

Originally Posted by PR0G4P4RV18

What do the blind see? I know that they see nothing, but what is nothing? Black? Or just nothing? What would it look like to see nothing?

What does your elbow see?

Originally Posted by Snooze

im pretty sure you still see black. you just dont know what to call it.
i hate how everyone tries to be super duper philosophical genius on the interwebs.

Are you trying to be ironic or hypocritical?

A person born blind probably 'sees' in the say way you do right when you fall asleep, but don't dream.

There's simply nothing. You don't see black, or colors or anything. Just, nothing. Your sense of sight is basically ignored.

Better question: What do the blind see when having lucid dreams.

This answers Jeff's question.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/12...body_dreaming/

New thread goal: find new sense in lucid dreams, completely different from what you've ever experienced.

Hard amirite.

Originally Posted by Kushna Mufeed

This answers Jeff's question.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/12...body_dreaming/

Thanks Kushna .

I thought most people werent born completely blind, but blind to a point where the see vague forms of light. Or is that wrong?

Originally Posted by PR0G4P4RV18

What do the blind see? I know that they see nothing, but what is nothing? Black? Or just nothing? What would it look like to see nothing?

Close your eyes and cover them with your hands.
That's what the blind see.

Here's somthing tricky, try to explain what colors are to a blind person.

http://www.lunar-light.org/forum/index.php?topic=975.0
read up yall.
I'm Matthew[citation needed]

so, who started this site? I see Komoroh on there too and it has a similar set up to dream views.

I started it, I'm the webmaster.

Haha, but seriously I think they'd see nothing. There is no input, nothing to pay attention to. Their sense of seeing would probably fade out.

Originally Posted by Jorge

Here's somthing tricky, try to explain what colors are to a blind person.

Differentiation of lightwaves based on frequency.

I am going blind in my left eye. I am losing sight in my left eye, and my right eye is taking over. I have slowly been going blind in it for a very long time now. So, the experiment I'm about to introduce to you only works for one of my eyes at the moment, but I believe that if you have normal sight, you can use either eye.

Take one eye, and close it, but leave the other open. Do you see the back of your eyelid (without trying hard to see the back of you eyelid, if you try very hard you will be able to see the back of your eyelid) or do you see only through the eye that is open?

So, asking what a blind person sees may in some cases be similar to asking "what does that one closed eye see." When there isn't enough sight in one eye not only do you use the open one, but you ignore the closed one.

Though still, interesting to think about. If I should ever go completely blind in both eyes, I would imagine I would see the color black. But, as long as I have some sight, I am able to simply remove the sight of my left eye completely, and it is not replaced with blackness, but simply ignored.

My guess is, they probably just see black, however are so used to it that it is peripheral and unnoticed (never changes to inspire attention). They probably then become more sensitive by feeling and hearing their surroundings.

I wonder if they push on their eyes while they're closed, that they will see all those funny colors appear?

Originally Posted by ClouD

New thread goal: find new sense in lucid dreams, completely different from what you've ever experienced.

Hard amirite.

Gee, what do you normally do in lucid dreams?

Originally Posted by PR0G4P4RV18

What do the blind see?

In neurological imaging studies, it demonstrates that the blind can actually form a spatial pattern recognition from texture and sound. Think of when Daredevil was able to see in the rain, this is the closest but obviously not what it truly is.

You have to close your own eyes and think of the side of a car and how it feels and imagine the feeling of the side door then running to the window pane and then to the roof. Those feelings make up a spatial "map" in the blinds mind.

I would love to show you pictures and sources, as I normally would, but there is none!

~